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CoX Updates: NCsoft buys CoX, Issue 11 Live Nov 28th

So itâ€™s that time again. Itâ€™s been a while, and thereâ€™s been a few changes to City of Heroes/City of Villains that may be of interest to old players, people whoâ€™ve been holding off on it, and people whoâ€™ve never heard of it, I dunno, maybe thereâ€™s some out there.

Iâ€™ll start with the free stuff since thatâ€™s what everyone likes to hear. A few weeks ago NCsoft bought CoX from Cryptic, including the entire dev team, which they incidentally plan to double or even triple. Why? Who knows! It probably has something to do with being that every other non-Guild Wars game NCsoft has put out in North America has been sucking dicks financially. For more on sucking dicks, skip to the Supergroups section. As a celebration of the new ownership, aka â€œlook hereâ€™s some shiny stuff to keep you too distracted to worry about our new ownershipâ€ they are giving us some stuff.

Stuff the first! Everyone who owned either City of Villains OR City of Heroes previous to November 6th, now owns both. That means full access to both sides, supergroup bases, and if you had 8 character slots now you have 12.

Other stuff! On December 10th, all debt will be wiped, and supergroups will get 20k bonus prestige per member. Since SG membership is being upped to 150 in Issue 11, this means 3 million max.

Speaking of Issue 11, which is coming out noon tomorrow, Nov 28th, unless it isnâ€™t in which case Iâ€™m a big liar, thereâ€™s obviously some stuff there to mention. First off are two new powersets, which go to all 4 ATs of scrappers, tanks, brutes and stalkers. The Dual Blades offensive set and the Willpower defensive set. Dual Blades has, instead of secondary effects, cool move combos that do bonuses like damage, buffs or debuffs. Additionally, the set moves insanely fast, Iâ€™ve played it on test and I felt like button mashing like it was an arcade fighter or something. Willpower is like a combo of Regen and Invuln and is designed for natural-flavored characters, and seems pretty decent.

Update two, WEAPONS FUCKING CUSTOMIZATION, BITCH.

Itâ€™s here! Any set using swords, bows, guns, axes, claws, maces now has the ability to choose (and color) their weapons as part of each costume. Some options are open right away, some need badges or Vanguard merits (speaking of, yes, Vanguard merits can buy you lightsabers, er, we mean, Talsorian Blades). Theyâ€™ve also promised new weapons with each coming issue. As a side note though, no, this doesnâ€™t put power customization any closer.

Update three, Flashback! After hitting 25 and accomplishing something time travel related, or by hitchhiking on someone elseâ€™s time portal, you can go to Ouroboros land. There are some new arcs which are pretty sweet, but more importantly, it allows you to go back in time and do arcs and badge missions you missed, or just simply redo them. Yes, this does mean you can now get infinite refills on some temp powers. You can also gimp yourself in various ways on old or current arcs, and get higher rewards or badges for doing so.

Thereâ€™s also some new IO sets, including rare purples and buyable respecs, and hairstyles.

And now that Iâ€™ve mentioned hairstyles, I know you canâ€™t wait. How can you play with us cool cats, you ask? The PA server is Virtue. Upon starting up, join the â€œPenny Arcadeâ€ global channel, and anyone there can get you into the correct Supergroup. The Supergroups are as follows:

Powerâ€™s Allegory & Powerâ€™s Academy: The basic hero side SGs. Allegoryâ€™s base is the one that is used for most functions.

The Squadron: A heroside SG based on alien cops & peacekeepers like the Green Lanterns and Nova Corp. You can either be a basic officer as a Defender, Blaster or Kheldian in a flashy, sci-fi, alien-looking uniform, or an elite Salvo (SWAT) Tanker or Scrapper in a dark, sci-fi, alien-looking uniform. Now looking for a few good sentients to fight back the Rikti! Characters are named in the form â€œ____ Squadronâ€.

Phantom Alliance: A bit less-active but some are still around, Phantom Alliance is for all illusionist controllers. Thereâ€™s a uniform that someone can dig up if thereâ€™s interest, characters are named â€œ_____ Phantomâ€.

Powerâ€™s Affliction & Social Entropy: The basic villain side SGs. Afflictionâ€™s base is the main villain base, and also the richest we got.

All players have 10-day free trials to give away. I believe I have 7 currently available, if you would like one just pm your email address to myself or one of the other CoXers Iâ€™ll badger into maeking poast here (just pm one person at a time though, please). If you would like to get started on downloading and updating the game, you can get the updater here: ftp://client.coh.com/US/CohUpdater.zip

And finally, the main CoX MMO thread is here if you're looking for more info.

so can you tell us any more about the dual blades powerset? what moves does it have, is the skill combo-ing intuitive or is there a list of which skills combo together to do what? i very much like the idea of double stabby-stabby.

so can you tell us any more about the dual blades powerset? what moves does it have, is the skill combo-ing intuitive or is there a list of which skills combo together to do what? i very much like the idea of double stabby-stabby.

also, how many PA players are still active?

I don't know anything about dual blades yet but as for activity..during peak hours we average 15-20 people on I'd say..though it can drop to fuck all during weird hours. This usually picks up like mad after issue releases though. We usually have atleast 1-2 teams running every night..sometimes more.

so can you tell us any more about the dual blades powerset? what moves does it have, is the skill combo-ing intuitive or is there a list of which skills combo together to do what? i very much like the idea of double stabby-stabby.

also, how many PA players are still active?

There's something like 4 combos, some moves are part of more than one. When you do the first move of a combo, the next is lit up, and the next, and the next, etc. You have something like 5 seconds to hit the next move. The combos will definitly play in more at higher levels when you have enough attacks and can keep attacking for a while. I found though I might get too focused on the combos, since I'd be looking at the lights and then look up and realize everything is already dead.

I really want to play this again. I had tons of fun with my trial account, but alas, I have no way to pay monies online. Do they have like.. time cards or whatever for this game that I could buy in a store?

so can you tell us any more about the dual blades powerset? what moves does it have, is the skill combo-ing intuitive or is there a list of which skills combo together to do what? i very much like the idea of double stabby-stabby.

also, how many PA players are still active?

Well, the combo moves it has are Empower, Weaken, Sweep, and Attack Vitals. Empower gives you a damage buff, Weaken debuffs, Sweep is an area effect knockdown (knockback if used on enemies that are a bit lower in level compared to you), and Attack Vitals is (if I recall correctly) an extra damage bonus. Each combo has three different attacks it needs, and some attacks can start more than one combo. When you hit a power that starts a combo, every other power on your tray that can be hit to continue a combo you started will have an orange circle around it, and same thing for the finisher.

Also, as far as I can tell, the powers that start, continue, and end combos are the same for Scrappers, Brutes, and Tankers but are slightly different for Stalkers.

That being said, I really don't know what you would do with all the powers in DB. If you take all the attack powers, you have pretty high flexibility with the different combos you can pull off, but I can't imagine actually using all of your powers all of the time. Every time I try to play with it on Test, I get locked into a rhythm of hitting the same one or two combos a lot, though that could just be due to me only getting to play the set from level 36, rather than from level 1.

I really want to play this again. I had tons of fun with my trial account, but alas, I have no way to pay monies online. Do they have like.. time cards or whatever for this game that I could buy in a store?

You can use credit card gift cards. I don't know about in the US, but in Canada, you can buy one in Safeway.

I have plenty of trial codes left. PM your email so you can get them. If you like comic books and MMOs you should give CoX a shot. If you did a while back and have not experienced inventions or been in a base or never got to kick Rikti ass (or not enough) you should give it another shot.

I really want to play this again. I had tons of fun with my trial account, but alas, I have no way to pay monies online. Do they have like.. time cards or whatever for this game that I could buy in a store?

They should. Time cards for any NCSoft game are supposed to work for any game. In fact, I believe they consolidated them all into just NCSoft / PlayNC time cards.

To be tediously clear about it, NCSoft has always been the publisher and run the servers, and account stuff, while Cryptic was the development studio that made the content, and they each had fifty percent of the Intellectual Property rights to CoX. Now, NCSoft owns 100% of the IP, and has hired away from Cryptic the current CoX dev team, has bought a new studio (NCSoft Norcal to set them up in. If you look at NCSoft's website and look at the hirings, anything for "Mountain View" is new positions for CoX. They've promised a doubled or tripled development team, which is pretty exciting for long term players since for years we've been told in response to "why can't we have <whatever" "Too time intenstive, not enough staff, not enough animation time, etc"

Log in to your CoH account at plaync.com, then click the "Refer a friend" link. You'll have up to 4 available at any one time. If you send out the trial code that way, and the person buys the game, you get a free month.

> turn on lightGood start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.

Log in to your CoH account at plaync.com, then click the "Refer a friend" link. You'll have up to 4 available at any one time. If you send out the trial code that way, and the person buys the game, you get a free month.

More specifically, you get a free month when they get their first paid month. If they play with a credit card, that's their second month (the one after the included month), if they play with a time card you get it right away.

Did anyone mention that i11 has actually gone live yet, cause it totally has

Dual blades is secksy. The combo system for it is a refreshing change, and it stacks with the Brute's meter for massive damage. Willpower is very meh, pretty much invuln+regen. It's very strong against smash/lethal, but everything else will fuck you up big time.

NCSoft today announced some new referal programs. Existing players can now get free game time by sending invites to former players to reactivate. As I understand it, it looks like if they resub for a month, you each get 15 days free play time. So, if you resub, it won't make sense not to use this system, since you can get 45 days worth of play for the price of 30 days, and your friend gets 15 free days too. Score.

I'll be resubscribing in January.... But man is it tempting to resubscribe now. This is great news! How's the lag situation when the Rikti attack? Is it still bad?

The Rikti attacks only happen now when someone finishes the Lady Grey Task Force, so its not really an issue. The regular invasions were an event for the I10 Launch, and were brought back for a weekend recently.